One love.
One love, two hearts.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights, four sleepless nights.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights, four sleepless nights, five messages on an answering machine.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights, four sleepless nights, five messages on an answering machine. six final entries on a divorce decree.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights, four sleepless nights, five messages on an answering machine. six final entries on a divorce decree, seven children abandoned, wondering, guilty, and angry.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights, four sleepless nights, five messages on an answering machine. six final entries on a divorce decree, seven children abandoned, wondering, guilty, and angry, eight insinuating, incriminating, debilitating, threats.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights, four sleepless nights, five messages on an answering machine. six final entries on a divorce decree, seven children abandoned, wondering, guilty, and angry, eight insinuating, incriminating, debilitating, threats. Nine flights to freedom for the far flung refugees of the family's flowering diaspora.
One love, two hearts, three screaming fights, four sleepless nights, five messages on an answering machine, six final entries on a divorce decree, seven children abandoned, wondering, guilty, and angry, eight insinuating, incriminating, debilitating, threats. Nine flights to freedom for the far flung refugees of the family's flowering diaspora. Ten genealogical, trans-generational, multi-national, dizzy dysfunctional families trying to heal.

07/22/2011

Author's Note: So many have told me stories of their fractured families, that this is my reaction. My family is close, so I see a contrast. The form of this poem follows a stoner game taken from a famous radio test that went something like, "One ham. One ham, two ducks. One ham, two ducks, three screaming geese. Etc...

Posted on 01/01/2012
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